Emily Dickinson Poem 465

Emily Dickinson in her poem #465, covers the subject of death in a way that I have not seen before. She delves right into the last sounds she heard when the narrator died, which was a fly buzzing. The last actions of this world are concluded by the assigning of "keepsakes", the last few tears while waiting "the King". And now, in the midst of this silence, Emily chooses to introduce the buzzing of a fly. This common household pest's incessant buzz becomes all the dying can hear. The fly is a significant part of the poem and in this essay, I will give examples as to why and how. I think the fly has special significance in the poem. Beelzebub was often portrayed as a fly: Lord of the Flies, and there is a strange tone about this poem,
The comparison of this quiet to the
"the stillness in the Air between the heaves of storm"(ln4) intensifies the feeling of anticipation for some frightening event. If you are out jogging in the summer and you start to see dark storm clouds looming overhead, there is a panic that comes, you could get caught in the storm. The clouds as beautiful as they may seem while inside, as soon as the storm begins, they let loose their power. I think the implied author is entering, in imagination; the very moment of death here is darkness itself. Which is why this poem is, for me, so chilling. So many of the poems insist on a life after death, a spiritual reawakening. But this poem ends on a note of obliteration and overwhelming darkness, accompanied only by the sound of the buzzing. The fly is also a symbol of decay and dissolution, and even of disease, and contamination.
It's a brilliant idea, a common household pest, and also a powerful symbol of evil, uninvited and distracting. This image of distraction is particularly noticeable, especially on first reading the poem. Everything's going so much according to plan it's as though these people are on a stage reading
"And then the
Windows failed - and then/ I could not see to see -" (ln 15) makes it doubly clear that the moment of vision (windows/eyes failing) has been stolen from her and that, in effect, the fly has won by becoming the very last thing the speaker hears, and imagines - I think the fact that she sees it as “Blue is not because she can see it but because she is imagining it. The irritation the fly introduces to the scene also becomes her final experience of life, a perfect example of how something so ordinary, even trivial, can loom so terribly large it can overwhelm and completely blot out the spirituality. I somehow feel that when Emily Dickinson wrote this poem, she was in pessimistic mood, maybe even doubting the faith that normally sustained her. The language in the poem, though wonderfully precise and startlingly original, seems to me less important for a reader than the message' of the poem, which can be taken as a wry comment on how everything, even the privacy of death, can be ruined by the commonest thing, or as something as darkly symbolic as a vision of hell itself. It leads us to the unknown but then gently lets us down, refusing to give us